


Sickening Feeling

by personqwer



Series: Inhumanities [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Body Horror, Character Study, Deviates From Canon, Dissociation, Graphic Description, Mental Instability, Mild Gore, Other, Pain, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 05:30:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11662599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/personqwer/pseuds/personqwer
Summary: Having lost his only chance to reverse his worsening condition, Seto Kaiba, to his distaste, seeks refuge at the residence of Yugi Muto. Kaiba's curse only worsens, as his body seems to conspire against him and tear away what little humanity he has left.





	Sickening Feeling

A cold chill ran down Kaiba’s back when the fateful duel with Yugi came to a close. The holograms projected on Yugi’s backyard told the story: Kaiba had no monsters on his field, two set cards that wouldn't help him in this situation, and on Yugi’s field, there was Slifer the Sky Dragon. Kaiba had lost, and presumably lost his only lead onto how to reverse his worsening curse.

When his Life Points reached zero, he stared blankly at Slifer and dropped to his knees. The holograms shut off, and the giant looming figure of the God Card vanished.

“Nii-sama!!” Mokuba cried, running over to his big brother’s side. He glared at Yami Yugi and said, “Did you not hear me earlier? Or get the hint?! Nii-sama had to win against you to-”

“Mokuba!” Kaiba growled, instantly silencing his sibling. 

“Wha..?” Mokuba looked at Kaiba, confused and concerned.

“I wouldn't accept the duel if Yugi wasn't giving it his all,” Kaiba spat, staring at the ground with contempt in his eyes, “And I doubt it would’ve worked anyway if he went easy on me. This defeat is on me.”

Mokuba looked down, mumbling, “I guess… But, now what're we going to do…?”

Kaiba said nothing. He had no answer for that loaded question… This was the only lead he was operating on, and he certainly couldn't return to his home in this state. A million thoughts raced through his head in just a few moments, he began to get overwhelmed. The only solution he could keep coming up with was to keep dueling Yugi until he won, until he finally could win-

“Hey, that light was coming from over here!” 

Kaiba was interrupted from his thoughts when he and the two others in the backyard heard a voice heading their way. They saw the distant shine of a flashlight. Shit, they must've seen the overwhelming size and glow from Slifer and it's attacks! 

Yami Yugi frowned, but immediately went to work, walking over to Kaiba and grabbing his arm. Kaiba was about to protest, as he hated being touched without his consent, but Yugi yanked him back up to his feet and into the shadows of some bushes that lined their yard. Mokuba quickly followed suit, covering his mouth and crouching down low next to them.

“Get down!” Yami whispered, grabbing hold of Kaiba’s wings that poked out of the bushes and crammed them down over top of Kaiba’s head. Kaiba had to cover his mouth with both hands to avoid screaming.

Kaiba felt his ear twitch- a skill he didn't recall ever having- when he heard a group of footsteps just a few feet away from them. Somehow, he was aware that Yugi had stopped breathing; he sensed it in a way he didn't fully understand other than a combination of acute hearing and his sensitive scales on his wings close to Yugi’s face.

Kaiba followed his lead, holding his breath while recognizing absolute silence was essential to his survival, and mostly reputation. He was relieved to sense that Mokuba did the same.

“I could've sworn it came from over here…” One of the voices said. Kaiba assumed it came from the one holding the flashlight, which was shining it's spotlight all over Yugi’s yard.

“Tch, whatever, man!” Another voice said, “Next time we go ghost hunting, I'm the one taking the lead. Let's get out of here before anyone hears us!” 

Bratty kids, Kaiba thought to himself, it's too late at night to be wandering about and loitering.

The beam of light from the flashlight went away, and Kaiba allowed himself to breathe quietly into his hands as the gang of teenagers walked away.

Kaiba felt Yugi exhale, and take a deep breath. Yugi poked his head out above the bushes, and presumably saw that the coast was clear. He stood up, gesturing for Kaiba and Mokuba to follow him back into his host’s house.

Kaiba pulled himself to his feet, willing his wings and tail to not uncurl and stretch in fear of being seen. He was on a new level of discomfort; Kaiba had entire new body parts to suffer with his touch-sensitivity. The sensation of pins and needles spread over his body, and he nearly collapsed to his knees again. Mokuba had caught him again, though. Mokuba knew that Kaiba hated being touched, and tried not to move him too much.

Kaiba almost wanted to lash out at both his brother and Yugi, for a thousand different reasons. But he recognized that hiding himself was most important. He followed his rival’s lead and limped into the card shop.

Once the door was closed, Kaiba immediately noticed that the ordinary Yugi Muto- the owner of that shared body, had taken control once more. He stared at Kaiba’s half-dragon body and said,

“W-what are we going to do about this, Kaiba-kun?!”

Kaiba bared his teeth and snarled, a low rumble coming from deep within his throat, “You tell me!”

Mokuba was similarly annoyed, and crossed his arms. “We came here because nii-sama had a dream telling him winning against the Pharaoh would fix him!!”

Yugi held his hands up, slightly intimidated, “Well don't yell at me! Other me was just dueling like we always do!”

Kaiba scoffed, and stepped away from them both. He looked down in shame and disgust as he stopped resisting the need to stretch his wings out. He caught Yugi staring at him, and said bitterly, “You're right… I'm just out of options, Yugi!” 

Yugi’s cheeks turned red, and he looked down. Stammering, he said, “M-maybe the Ishtars would know how to fix you! They know all about this kind of stuff, I think…”

Kaiba grit his teeth, wincing at the pain of doing so. His jaw was much stronger than it used to be. 

A very long silence ensued, Kaiba himself was unsure how to respond. Logically, he knew that this sort of phenomenon was outside his control, let alone supernatural. Deep within him, he knew he should probably ask for outside help, and knowing the ancient Egyptian history behind Duel Monsters, it seemed likely an Egyptian family so closely tied to the ancient past might know something about it.

But no. He would honestly rather die right now than show himself like this, so pathetically, to anyone. Especially not them.

“...Those freaks?” Kaiba spat, “I shouldn't have to go crying at the feet of those clowns for something I can fix on my own.”

Kaiba turned around around and held out his duel disk again. “I'll keep dueling you until I win, even if it takes all night!”

Yugi paused, but then with a twinge of uncertainty, held his duel disk back up again. “Okay, whatever you say…”

\--

Kaiba was so mad. He was so mad at the world, and himself, for allowing this situation to happen. His condition might not have gotten this worse if he did things differently. But now he was laying down on Yugi’s bedroom floor. He was too proud to ask for a blanket, he had to preserve some of his dignity. 

Mokuba, on the other hand, was sleeping next to him on the floor, curled up in a fuzzy blanket with ducks on it that Yugi had given him. Kaiba was able to look at Mokuba’s face, sleeping so soundly, and remember the world wasn't all bad. 

Kaiba rested on his stomach, resting his head on his arms. He had slowly been becoming accustomed to the smoothness of his scales and was able to be comfortable laying on them. With his wings at his sides, one wing covering Mokuba almost instinctively to protect him, he was about to finally doze off and get a few hours of sleep before the sun rose. But, then, something in his jacket pocket tied around his waist buzzed. He kept his phone in there, and he immediately got to his knees to pull it out.

It was Roland, one of his loyal employees! Of course he'd check up on him this early in the morning. But, he probably didn't know he and Mokuba were gone. 

Kaiba sat on his legs, the only comfortable sitting position he had now that his thick tail was in the way, and he answered.

“Yes, Roland?” Kaiba asked calmly, covering his mouth a bit to muffle it so ideally, Yugi and Mokuba couldn't hear.

“Mr. Kaiba! We noticed that Mokuba and you weren't at home. I was calling to ask if you two were out somewhere…”

“Yeah, we are… Me and him left early on a business trip, it's kind of confidential-” Kaiba explained, but suddenly gasping sharply in pain. He clutched his hand over his face to mask the croaks he had made. He had felt as if he had been kicked in the chest, and his ribs were actively breaking. Fear washed over Kaiba’s rapidly paling face as he heard Roland respond with concern.

“Are you okay, Mr. Kaiba?”

“Y...eah. I'm great…” Kaiba lifted, his tail and smacked Mokuba with it. Mokuba yelped and jumped awake. Kaiba cringed, hoping this did not sound too suspicious.

“Mokuba and I…” Kaiba made direct eye contact with his confused brother, and gestured to his phone as he continued, “Just tripped over a step at our hotel. Here, Roland.. You talk to Mokuba about our business trip.”

Kaiba handed the phone to Mokuba, who quickly understood what was going on and the cover-up story. As Kaiba got up and hurried away to find Yugi’s bathroom, Mokuba stood up and tried to sound calm.

“Y-yeah! Hi, Roland! Yeah, we're doing great… I'm pretty sleepy because we got here so early, but nii-sama said it was important that we did…” Mokuba leaned to the side a bit to see Kaiba’s tail twitching down the hall where the bathroom was. 

Yugi started to wake up, and Mokuba reached over and put his free hand over his mouth. Yugi seemed surprised, but upon seeing Mokuba on the phone, understood and shut up.

“A-ANY-way, Roland…!” Mokuba said, a bit louder than he wanted to try and cover up the sound of Kaiba heaving and smacking the tile wall of the bathroom, “We really gotta get going. Thanks for checking in on us! But we might be gone for awhile, so don't worry when you don't hear many updates!”

“Okay, Mokuba-” Roland replied, before Mokuba promptly hung up on him and put the phone on his discarded duck blanket.

Mokuba took his hand off of Yugi and ran down the hall to see how his brother was doing.

Kaiba was coughing up blood into the bathroom sink. He felt like the bones in his body were working against him, he could feel them distort and split. He could even hear the disgusting sounds they were making inside of him. He still hadn't eaten in the last twenty-four hours, and for that he was thankful. On top of the excruciating pain, he felt horribly nauseous. His stomach kept contracting as if it was desperate to be rid of its contents, but there was absolutely nothing to vomit. 

Kaiba’s throat burned as his stomach acids were forced up, and he had to cover his mouth with both of his hands to avoid choking it out onto the floor. 

“Nii-sama!!” Mokuba said, looking frantically into the claustrophobic bathroom. He saw his brother standing over the sink, trembling, and knew this episode had to be just as bad as the one that gave him his wings and tail.

Kaiba could hardly hear Mokuba over his own demons. His brother sounded far away, and the room Kaiba was in started to feel like it was closing in on him and crushing him. He saw flashing colors as he stared up at the mirror in front of him. He swayed and leaned against the wall to avoid falling. 

The ringing in his ears was unbearable. It was so loud and grating, Kaiba almost wanted to tear his ears off. Clawing at the sides of his head, he screamed in agony, trying to shield his face from the room enclosing him in a sinister, cruel, and rapidly tightening grip. He could still hear his organs and bones twisting and popping from deep within himself, a noise he couldn't escape no matter how much he screamed.

Kaiba was vaguely aware of his brother crying to Yugi, begging for him to do something. He wasn't sure what they were doing, but they sounded miles away. How he could still hear them, he wasn't sure.

Kaiba felt a hand grab his wrist, and he resisted in an irrational panic. He was suddenly yanked out of the bathroom door, and Kaiba, still an unstable mess that he was, fell right onto the floor face-first. The impact caused a sharp and sudden extra jolt of pain to his abdomen, and made his vision go white for a moment.

He felt something being shoved into his mouth. A hand towel, again twisted up enough to allow Kaiba to bite on it to cope with the pain. He couldn't hear or see anything that was going on around him. It was just sharp ringing, and blurry figures above him, moving him somewhere as he writhed on the cold floor.

When Kaiba came to, the pain had subsided, and everything was quiet. As the noises around him came into focus, he could hear Mokuba crying. And Yugi seemed to be comforting him. Kaiba was too exhausted to move, or open his eyes. So he just listened for awhile.

“-I-I just don't know what to do, Yugi!” Mokuba sobbed, “Nii-sama… N-Nii-sama… H-He…”

“I-I know, Mokuba-kun… I'm scared too. I had no idea Kaiba-kun was dealing with something this horrific… But it'll be fine, we'll figure this out… The Ishtars should know about this. I'll get into contact with them. It'll be okay…”

Kaiba felt a hole in his chest form. He had a feeling it wasn't going to be that simple. The pit of despair he was sinking into was deepening, and he could only hope Mokuba could heal from this pain Kaiba was putting him through. Kaiba couldn't think properly, he was so tired. His mind felt fuzzy and hazy, like his head was full of cotton balls. He just wanted Mokuba to be okay. Kaiba was dying-he refused to acknowledge the fact that he was turning into something inhuman- and he honestly wanted it to be over with now. 

But, he had to make sure Mokuba would be okay.

Kaiba opened his eyes, and looked over at the blurry figures of Mokuba and Yugi. His eyes ached from within, and Kaiba found it slightly alarming that he couldn't see them properly…

“M...okuba…” Kaiba croaked, Mokuba immediately looking up from Yugi’s arms.

“Nii-sama!-” Mokuba scrambled on his hands and knees to Kaiba’s side. By this point, Kaiba was able to figure out that he was laying on Yugi’s bedroom floor on his back. A pillow was behind his head.

“What happened..?” Kaiba asked quietly, the previous torture already becoming a swirling mess of confusing and contradicting memories.

“You… Y-you.. Transformed more, in there…” Mokuba said, almost scared of what Kaiba would say. “Nothing much on the outside, but you were coughing up so much blood, so I assumed…”

Mokuba pressed his hand gently on Kaiba’s abdomen. He hadn't noticed that Yugi and Mokuba had lifted up his shirt. Kaiba winced slightly, his brother’s hand was uncomfortably warm.

“I think it was all on the inside… And you're completely covered in scales now, except for your face mostly…” Mokuba took his hand off of Kaiba, “Is there anything else?”

“I…” Kaiba tried to think about what was wrong with him that he could tell. He squinted, trying to make out Mokuba’s face, but he could not. 

“I can't… See.” Kaiba managed to say, and he could immediately sense the horror in Mokuba and Yugi.

“You can't? Are you.. Blind..?” Yugi asked.

Kaiba lifted his head and squinted at the spiky figure that was Yugi.

“Everything is blurry… and it hurts to keep my eyes open.” Kaiba corrected, closing his eyes again. That made his eyes hurt slightly less, so he decided he just wasn't using his eyes for a bit.

“N-Nii-sama.. No..” Mokuba choked back his tears, and threw himself over his brother in an awkward embrace. Kaiba huffed, Mokuba having knocked what little wind he had out of him.

“It’s not fair!!” Mokuba wailed, “It's not fair, it's not fair!!! Nii-sama doesn't deserve this!!”

Kaiba weakly reached his arms around Mokuba, to hug him back reassuringly. He felt pins and needles while doing so, and he didn't really want to be touched, but Mokuba and himself needed this, he figured. His little brother sobbed into his bunched-up shirt, and Kaiba gently pet his head, attempting to sooth him by running his fingers through his hair.

“I'm fine, Mokuba..”

“No you're not, Nii-sama!”

Kaiba couldn't answer to that.

-

When Kaiba woke up again, the sun was high, it seems that they had slept in. Kaiba looked down at his chest and noticed Mokuba’s small, and delicate form resting his head on it as he slept. Mokuba was curled up, and seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Kaiba’s eyes were still unfocused, but he could make out shapes and colors well enough for recognition.

Yugi wasn't anywhere to be seen. Kaiba didn't sense him anywhere in the room. Unsure of what to do, Kaiba just reached over to grab his phone off of the duck blanket next to his head, and unlocked it. He had to press his thumb pretty hard to get his touches to register, however. The millions of tiny scales that now covered his hands also covered his palms and fingertips, and the phone screen only reacted well to human flesh.

Checking his social media -and having to hold it close to his face to make out the words- nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. He had no new emails either. Their cover-up story worked, which was good. Kaiba was glad he had the absolute most authority in KaibaCorp, along with his brother, it really helped in hiding situations like this.

Kaiba’s wings ached badly; he had slept on them wrong. He put his hand on Mokuba’s head, and ruffled his hair slightly.

“Mokuba, wake up.” Kaiba said, being careful not to scratch his brother.

Mokuba winced, and whined a bit. “Five more minutes…”

“Mokuba!” Kaiba said, more firmly this time. 

Mokuba lifted his head up quickly, and said in a tired daze, “I-I'm up, nii-sama!” 

Kaiba took that chance to push himself up to a sitting position. He realized quickly that it would be impossible, as his thick tail was in the way. Instead, he had to push himself to a kneeling position. The weight of his wings on his knees hurt, and he leaned forward and dropped to his hands and knees. Kaiba snarled at the ground, feeling humiliated by his own body forcing him to all fours. He stretched his wings, trying to pretend he didn't look like an animal like this.

“Are you okay, nii-sama..?” Mokuba asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes. 

Kaiba was about to answer, but Mokuba let out a small gasp of pain. Kaiba’s oversensitive nose smelled the distinct scent of blood. His heart sunk.

“Mokuba-”

“N-nii-sama?!” Mokuba’s voice quivered, as if he was about to start screaming any second. Mokuba was staring at his hands when Kaiba looked back at him, squinting to try and get a clear picture.

“M-my hands…” Mokuba cried, showing them to his brother. Mokuba’s fingers and palms were flaking an unsettling amount, and the tips of his fingers were silvery. His nails were already slightly pointed.

Mokuba had started to cry. “Nii-s-sama…?”

Kaiba stared at Mokuba’s hands. He remembered the horrible suffering he had gone through the last few weeks. He wouldn't wish anything like that upon his little brother for anything, he would rather die. 

Back in his kneeling position, he reached out, struggling to find words. He held Mokuba’s small hands in his own, feeling them, and knowing for certain that his brother had caught the same condition he had. He felt many emotions building up in his chest. Guilt, fear, anger, despair… He could barely distinguish them from one another.

He saw Mokuba start crying, and instinctively pulled his brother into a hug. He said reassuringly, “It's going to be okay… I'll fix this..” Even though his own voice felt far away.

When Yugi returned to the room, time seemed to slow to a standstill. Kaiba felt as if he wasn't in his own body as he watched himself explain to Yugi what was happening. Through dissociation was he able to keep calm… 

He heard the distant sound of Yugi’s voice, saying he was going to go call up the Malik and his family right away. Kaiba watched himself assert that he would bring them all there personally.

Kaiba knew he could fly… and the bubbling dragon instincts within his chest told him that they could make it within an hour. Could he distort time and space while flying to move places faster through wormholes? He wasn't certain. But if it meant he could get Mokuba to Egypt faster for possible treatment, he'd be willing to cast aside logic for a little while.


End file.
